20 Excellent Free Tools for Interactive Collaboration Experiences in the Classroom

20 Excellent Free Tools for Interactive Collaboration Experiences in the Classroom from Kelly Walsh

Read More

វិធី៥យ៉ាងធ្វើអោយកូនចូលចិត្តធ្វើ Homework (5 Ways to Make Kids Enjoy Homework)

August 8, 2014
There has recently been  some heated debates within the education circles on the efficacy of assigning  kids homework. Those who are against kids homework argue that off school time is time for play-related psycho motor development that kids inherently require; pro-kids homework contend that engaging kids in school-related work while at home enhances kids cognitive skills and sustains that connection of school/home intact. I personally view homework as a necessary part of kids intellectual growth and a needed element for kids overall scholarly preparedness. However, homework is not always celebrated by kids and most of them shun away from it blaming it for stealing away  their allotted play time.

To make homework fun for kids, Splash Math has these 5 tips to share with you.

1- Magical Motivators
Use incentives to get your children to do their homework without a fight. Small snack, stickers, iPad time or toys work well for younger children.

2- Write it for them
No, that doesn't mean do it for them. It might seem counter-intuitive, but if you mix up the routine, and have your child dictate the answers to you, they will be a lot more interested in the actual subject material.

3- Learning apps
Fun math practice apps can be a great resource for visual examples and games that help your child practice concepts he is struggling with.

4- Get a Homewrok Buddy

Turn homework into a play date. Have your child invite a friend over and encourage them to do their homework together. Make sure you lay down a few rules ahead of time.

5- Don't take it it Too serious
There are more important things in life than homework and grades. Too much emphasis on grades can destroy your child's love of learning and devalue relationships.

Read More

Audio Editing Tools for Teachers

Audio editing software are usually expensive and hard to operate. As teachers and educators, we sometimes need to record audio clips, edit them and integrate them in our multimedia projects in class. There are a variety of free web tools that you can use with your students to do that. I am sharing with you a list of some of the top free audio editing tools to use with your students.

1- Accoustica

Acoustica is a beautifully designed, comprehensive audio editor built for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and batch-processing.

2- Audacity

Audacity is a great open-source audio recording and editing program compatible with most operating systems. The software lets you record live audio through a mixer or microphone; you can also import MP3, WAV, AIFF and OGG file formats -- then, digitize previous recordings, edit them and export.

3- Audio Tool

AudioTool is a great beat-making app, similar to GarageBand. It has a simple, visually pleasing interface, and lets you create complex audio arrangements with more than 14 effects.

4- MP3 Cutter

MP3 Cutter is an audio cutter. In other words, it helps you edit down MP3 files into small audio snippets. Once you've edited the clip, export it as an MP3, WAV or OGG file.

5- Audio Joiner

Audio Joiner is a great app for combining several songs onto a single track. The app lets you cross-fade tracks and adjust certain intervals. There's no limit to the number of songs you combine, and it's compatible with a number of file formats, including MP3, M4A and WAV. It runs entirely online, too, so there's no need to download anything.

6- Reaper

Reaper is a compact, downloadable digital audio workstation. Using it, you can record, arrange, edit, mix, layer and render audio. It's non-destructive, so you can undo and redo edits without corrupting your file.

7- Wave Pad

WavePad is free for non-commercial use -- something it reminds you whenever you open the program. It has a clean, modern interface and supports a wide array of file formats. It additionally has a text-to-speech module, lets you rip and burn CDs and comes with tons of editing effects and batch-processing.

8- Wavosaur

Wavosaur is a Windows-only application that lets you record, render and mix audio. The file is extremely small, taking up only 225 KB of storage, but still boasts some of the best features for editing. You can change the bit rates of files, convert file formats, normalize and apply other edits to audio files; plus, the editing process is non-destructive, so you can easily undo and redo any changes.

9- Nero Wave Editor

Nero WaveEditor is an audio processing tool for basic editing and recording. It accommodates AC3,AIF, AIFF, MP3, WMA, MP4, OGG, WAV, WAVE and NWF files. It also allows for non-destructive processing.

Read More

The New Google Drive Updates Teachers Should Know about

 August 4, 2014
Google has recently released some important updates to its Google Drive. I have already covered each of these updates in separate posts but for those of you who haven't seen them yet, the list below aggregates all of these updates in one single place.

Google Docs 

1- Suggested Edits 

This new feature is great for collaborative work on Google Docs. Before, when you share a Google document with your collaborators and grant them the editing rights they can edit anything in it. But with "Suggested Edits" you, as the owner of the document, can control this editing process by allowing collaborators to make only suggestions which you can either accept or reject. This new feature is not available on Google Docs for mobile.

2-  Edit Office Files in Google Drive

Sometimes people send you files and you need to be able to open them, make some edits, and send them back. If they don’t use Docs, Sheets and Slides it can be a challenge. With the latest update from Google Drive, this is no longer an issue because both the web and mobile apps for Docs, Sheets, and Slides let you edit Office files—without conversion—so you can now edit and send back files in their original format.

Google Slides 

1- Widescreen Format

Google now allows a widescreen view of presentations. Now when you try to make a new presentation you will have a widescreen where you can get a ton of new space to fill with words, charts, tables or even a simple, beautiful image. You can also change the size of your slides using the pull down menu in the theme chooser, or by visiting Page setup in the File menu. Widescreen presentation are a good fit for TV or monitor.

2- Editable Master Slide

This functionality allows users to change customize the theme of their presentations as they like. can now easily tailor how content appears on every slide by selecting "Edit master" from the Slide menu. For example, you can set all of your header fonts to Alconica, make all of your first level bullets bold, and add a logo in the bottom right corner.

3- Edit, Crop, and Add Borders to Images in Slides

With this new feature, users can now customize and edit images they use in their Slides . Before this update, users were limited as to what they can do with images they upload to their slides,now Google makes it easier for anyone to crop, edit, apply shape masks, and add borders to their images from within the presentation.

4- Slide App is now available

Like Docs and Sheets, Google Slide has now a mobile app for both iOS and Android. Using this app, you will be able to create and edit slides on the go, even if you are offline.

Google Apps

Google Apps administrators are now able to recover files that have been deleted by users provided there is a specified date range during which this deletion took place. Here is what Google said about it :

Admins can now restore a given user’s deleted Google Drive files for a specified date range. This helps ensure that, if a user accidentally deletes important files, those files are not permanently lost. The feature pertains to files that have been emptied from the Trash only. Files still in the Trash can be easily recovered by the use

Read More

New Ed Tech Updates Teachers Should Know About

New Ed Tech Updates Teachers Should Know About

There have been some interesting updates in the EdTech world this summer. In case you haven't been in the loop , below are the major EdTech tools that have been updated. I will also be sharing a follow-up post with more updated EdTech tools next week. Stay tuned.

1- Google Drive

There are several cool new features that have been added to Google Drive and which I think every teacher should know. Check out this post to learn more about these new updates.

2- ClassDojo

ClassDojo has also released two new important updates: The first one allows teachers to share classes with each other. The second feature lets teachers share reports with their colleagues and school administrators.

3- ThingLink

ThingLink has also released a new feature called ThingLink for Video. This new feature is  still in beta phase but you can request  an early access to try it. ThingLink video allows you to easily add interactive elements to public videos on YouTube. This is a great way to add rich layers of information and resources to videos you share with students. You can for instance add links to websites where students can read more on the topic of the video, or add links to other videos. You can also annotate your video by adding text and hyperlinks.

4- Kaizena

Kaizena is a free tool that allows users to add audio comments to Google Docs. Kaizena has also added a new feature that enable users to add audio comments to Google Slides. Learn more about this new update from this post.

Read More